October 2008

For the annual conference of the Association of Internet Researchers in Copenhagen I have written a paper on explicit and implicit participation. The paper is part of a panel assembled by Kim de Vries on Community, Privacy, and Power: The Complex Relationships of Web 2.0. The panel revolves around social networking sites. Elfi Ettinger presents a research on e-recruiting platforms and the problem of out-dated data, Anders Fagerjord speaks on practices of self-representation on Facebook, Christian Ulrik Andersen focuses on games played on Facebook, and Kim de Vries discusses ephemeral communication unfolding on Facebook.

The annual conference of the German association for media studies (Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft) hosts a panel with scholars from Utrecht University. Ann-Sophie Lehmann, Eggo Müller, Martina Roepke and MTS present four papers on amateurs and media practice. "Hands On. Das wertvolle Wissen der Amateure. Kollaboration, Konvention und Tacit Knowledge in den digitalen Medien." This panel presents concepts for analysing media practice without following the moral framework that usually celebrates enthusiastically the alleged user participation as revolutionary change in cultural production. User activities are analysed in context of social interaction, power relations, and hands-on skills as well as the role of shaping and sharing knowledge of technology. Using case examples from P2P file sharing, Flickr and YouTube, the four presentations discuss user activities as practice of design appropriation and as implementation into commercial applications.